Prompt: Ichabod Crane
The barn was a tinderbox taking only one spark to go up in flames. I escaped with minor burns on my hands from prying the steel doors open. The hay, oh god, the hay, it could have been thermite by the way it burned. Coughing, I expected to find a group of teens with a matchbox outside the glow, but I met a pumpkin.
The Jack o'lantern sat upon a black steed a monstrous animal, perhaps a Clydesdale or Percheron, whose coat rippled with a red sheen. I couldn't seem to move and as the horse reared with the Jack o'lantern figure swinging a ax, I realized the ablaze barn was a safer place. The horse's hooves stuck the ground with a thunderous crash, and I turned running. Somehow I reached the house before the ax could reach my head, but it was a dry summer.
The fire had spread from the barn, now smoldering, to the grass around the house. I thought for sure the Jack o'lantern man would get out of there that his horse would scream in fear of the flames. Both rider and mount crashed through the front door. I was stunned and that was why my mouth was a gape and eyes were wide when the Jack o'lantern man lobbed off my head.
The rest of me is buried in the local cemetery just down the lane. I wonder what the Jack o'lantern man did with my head; no body ever found it you see.
The family who bought my farm weren't informed of the events on October 31st, but the land had good nutrients from the burned remains. One of the new family's horses can see me when I roam my old fields carrying my head with one arm. When I bought this farm, the land had a lot of nutrients and I keep on running into the others carrying their heads as well.
I've tried to scare this family away, but the whole chain rattling, howling bit doesn't work on these people. They have such lovely children, a curly haired little girl and a boy. Therefore, I'll roam my old fields keeping a weather eye out for the Jack o'lantern man.